Mediagazer: Australia's foreign affairs minister appeals to Egypt's president to help journalist Greste (Bridie Jabour/Guardian)

5:00 AM ET, June 24, 2014

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Jared Malsin / Columbia Journalism Review:

In Egypt, a Kafkaesque trial concludes with a victory for censorship — Three Al Jazeera journalists, arrested in December, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms based on questionable evidence — It began with murmuring. Someone sobbed. Then the courtroom melted into a chaos of shouting …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, Committee to Protect …, SBS, Melbourne Press Club, Crikey, ABC, Crikey, @ksaloomey, Mashable, @channel4news, @sherinet, @matinastevis, UK - The Huffington Post, FiveThirtyEight, TheAustralian, The Stream, Guardian and Politico

Bridie Jabour / Guardian:

Australia's foreign affairs minister appeals to Egypt's president to help journalist Greste — Peter Greste jailed: parents in shock as Australia appeals for his release — Juris and Lois Greste consider their options as Julie Bishop says she is appalled by Egypt's seven-year jail sentence

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Daily Dot, Crikey, ABC, ninemsn, @lenoretaylor, Huffington Post Canada, Agence France-Presse, NEWS.com.au and Guardian

Bill Carter / New York Times:

Bigger Than Baseball: 25 Million Watch U.S.-Portugal World Cup Match — With an audience of 25 million viewers for Sunday's game between the United States and Portugal, the World Cup is moving into elite territory as a sports property on American television.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wrap, Capital New York, Reuters, @nytimes and ESPN MediaZone

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

Nielsen and comScore Can't Tell You How Many People Streamed USA's World Cup Tie With Portugal — It's becoming clear the World Cup is a hit on U.S. television this year, judging from huge ratings for Sunday night's riveting game between the U.S. and Portugal.

Tom Goldstein / SCOTUSblog:

SCOTUSblog will appeal credential decision, which said blog was not independent of law firm — The walls erected by traditional media — This was a morning of ironies. At 9:30 a.m., six members of the blog staff were live-blogging the Supreme Court's orders, followed by opinions at 10 a.m. There were 10,000 readers.

Discussion: Washington Post, @wvscblog, @freedomofpress, @trevortimm and Poynter

Bloomberg:

Twitter Denies Blocking Extremist Accounts in Russia — Twitter Inc. (TWTR) said it hasn't agreed to block extremist accounts in Russia, rebutting earlier statements by the country that access was being restricted. — Instead, the San Francisco-based microblogging service said it's …

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Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Amazon Adds More Ads To Instant Video Store — Now showing in Amazon's video store: Another word from its sponsors. — The e-commerce giant, which has started quietly experimenting with video ads, is adding more of them to its “Amazon Instant Video” store.

Discussion: @gregbensinger and @waltmossberg

Ted Johnson / Variety:

AT&T, DirecTV To Pitch Capitol Hill on Benefits of Merger — AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, in scheduled appearances on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with DirecTV chairman and CEO Michael D. White, plans to tell lawmakers that their proposed $49 billion merger may lead to lower prices for consumers across the marketplace.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Wall Street Journal

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Vanity Fair to host conference in San Francisco this fall, charging $5K a ticket — Vanity Fair's Fall Conference Taps Power of the Rolodex — Vanity Fair magazine will host a conference in San Francisco this fall, becoming the latest publication to enter the potentially lucrative …

Discussion: @markhor, @nytmedia, @pkafka and Re/code

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Disney Not Pursuing Equity Stake in Vice Media — Time Warner is still considered a suitor for the media company, though the two parties are $400 million apart. — Reports suggesting that several major media conglomerates are interested in paying big money for a stake in Vice Media are overblown …

Discussion: Quartz, The Wrap and New York Times

CBC News:

Bell Media laying off up to 120 across Toronto TV operations — Bell Media is laying off up to 120 people across its Toronto television operations. — Bell Media owns and operates numerous channels in the Toronto area, including CTV, CTV News Channel, TSN, MuchMusic, Comedy, CP24 and BNN.

Discussion: Toronto Star, Huffington Post Canada and Canadian Press

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

CNN partnering with Georgia Institute of Technology to study drone use for journalism — CNN to study drone use for reporting — Seeking to speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology said Monday that they would jointly study …

Discussion: Politico, TVNewser, @brianstelter, @dorseyshaw and Poynter

David Hepworth / Guardian:

Felix Dennis personified the buccaneering spirit magazines have lost — Outrageous and passionate, Dennis was a shrewd operator who made small fortunes from the mis-steps of the big boys — I first met Felix Dennis in an upscale New York restaurant on a hot July Saturday in 1983.